Lirakaster - The Sword of the World
The continent of Lirakaster is arguably the most cosmopolitan of the Six Continents of Ici'Taria, home to a great number and diversity of peoples and civilisations. Although you can find examples of every race and culture more or less everywhere, in Lirakaster this diversity is far more stable, with every imaginable race being almost evenly represented. It also plays host to some of the most iconic places, people and institutions of the globe, including the free city of Mabinogos, host of the Citadel of Starlight, the headquarters of the legendary Preserver Guardians, the Dynas Tsutendrauma, the human-led empire of the Royal Line of Tstutendraum, and the Tuvali Shogunate, the feudal confederacy of the tiefling-led Zephyr Princes. Geography Lirakaster is shaped in the rough image of an ancient-style sword, giving rise to its moniker, and is essentially a long strip of land, the spine of which is formed of the Peaks of the Colossus, a vast mountain range that extends from one end of the continent to the other, surrounded by forests, grassy plains and great lakes to the north, to wetlands, savannas and even some subtropical forests to the south. The settlements on the steppes of the Peaks are bastions of civilisation in an otherwise hardy land, home to tough and hardy people who are weathered and honed by the wild forests and unforgiving slopes. Nearer to the coast, most towns are port havens, hubs of commerce and trade from and to the other continents, attracting savvy merchants, charming and unscrupulous rogues and dreamy youths, seeking the adventure they've been waiting for their entire lives. Dynas Tsutendraum - A Dynasty of Dreams The Tuvali Shogunate - A Confederacy of Warriors The Tuvali Shogunate is the newest nation of Lirakaster, only becoming a sovereign state after the War of Names. Unlike other nations, the Shogunate is actually a tight confederacy of feudal holdings called shogai (sing. shogun), each ruled by a Zephyr Prince, or sovereign, and all answering to the Shogai King or Queen, or high sovereign, who is elected from their number when the former Shogai King or Queen dies. In total, their are thirteen provinces within the Shogunate, each one with it's own customs and laws, but bound by the unbreakable alliance of the Shogunate as a whole, and honour-bound to respect the laws and rulings of the Shogai King, who rules from the city state of Tuval. Each shogun is ruled by a single Zephyr Prince, who holds a court of nobles and trusted comrades who each command a portion of the shogun as their own. They are responsible for the enforcement of local laws and the protection of the people under their care, as well as collecting the minimal taxes that the Shogunate must by necessity demand to maintain their bureaucracy, such as it is. The thirteen provinces are as follows: * Coloss Rise, the shogun that borders the Peaks of the Colossus to the Northwest * Sektra Lowlands, a province of mostly arable land which borders the peaks to the Southeast * Pinekeeps, a forested region which borders the Conclave Territories * Tuval's Soul, a central province where some of the most vicious fighting of the War took place * Echoglades, a northerly central region noted for it's abundance of caves and other subterranean geography * The Maw Dales, the northernmost province that surrounds the Maw Bay * Lamplight's Rest, the northerly coastal region where many Zhar'tian naval invasions were routed * The Seacities, a single province that governs the islands off the coast of the Shogunate * The Warming Deeps, an entirely subterranean province beneath Echoglades that once played host to the Rebellion's army * Mooncradle, a skyborne province that persists on a titanic earthmote above Coloss Rise * The Warplains, a sparse region that was the casualty of a horrific magical event during the war * Kaita's Throne, a province built around the sacred mountain of Kaita's Peak * The Vigil Coast, where the port cities of Ikatra and Zemnos house the vast Imperial Navy, and the capital city-state of Tuval is located Before the conflict arose, the region was hotly contested between the Primarchs of the Oculus Eternal, the tyrant rulers of Zhar'tian, and the neighbouring kindom of Dynas Tsutendraum. When war broke out between Zhar'tian and the Tsutendraumnen, eventually dragging the other Lirakasteran nations in as well, the region became the main site of most of the conflict. It was not until the Tuvali Rebellion, an uprising of former slaves of the Circle, broke the Zhar'tian offensive that the Lirakasteran armies could gain any foothold in the region, and after the war, the Rebellion reformed itself into the Tuvali Shogunate, named in honour of their former leader, the Shogai Queen Tuvalinar.